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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Recipe for Kalyn's Tabbouleh with Almonds

My favorite version of Tabbouleh Salad, with parsley, mint, and lots of slivered almonds.

(Updated with new photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2012.) Tabbouleh (also spelled Tabbouli and Tabouli) is something I've loved from the first time I tasted it and I've been making this for years, especially in the summer when I have plenty of fresh parsley and mint from my garden. Some people may turn their nose up at the fact that I use a pre-seasoned tabbouleh mix for the bulgur mixture, but years ago I had a woman from Lebanon come to a party at my house, and she went crazy over my version of Tabbouleh. With fresh lots of fresh parsley and mint, and a generous amount of slivered almonds, I think the taste of this Tabbouleh can't be beat.

In America, versions of this middle eastern salad have lots of bulgur in proportion to other ingredients, but in traditional recipes there is quite a bit of parsley, mint, and possibly chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, and not much bulgur. I prefer the more traditional way of making it, with lots of parsley in particular, and I don't like cucumbers or tomatoes in my tabbouleh, but you can certainly add them if you'd like. For years I've loved the addition of slivered almonds, although they are certainly not traditional, except maybe at my house!

You can tell this is something I make often, because I buy the mix in bulk and have the recipe written on the lid of the jar. In Utah I like the mix from Smith's Marketplace best, but you can get it at most any store that has bulk natural foods. If you'd prefer a box mix, I like Fantastic Foods brand.

Mix together the Tabbouleh mix, water, olive oil, and lemon juice and let it sit for a few hours in the fridge until the liquid is all absorbed.

I'm lucky to have abundant mint and parsley to make this in the summer, but if you have to buy herbs you can get by with one bunch of each from the store.

When the tabbouleh mix has expanded and all the water is absorbed you're ready to make the salad.

Since I'm using garden herbs, I give them a good wash in the salad spinner.

Chop up enough parsley to make a generous cup of chopped parsley. Curly parsley is fine here.

Chop enough mint leaves to make 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint.

Mix the chopped parsley and mint into the tabbouleh mix.

Then mix in the chopped almonds, as much as you'd like.

And here's the original photo of this recipe from back in 2007, probably more almonds than I'd use now but don't skimp too much on the almonds!

Kalyn's Tabbouleh with Almonds
(Makes 4 - 6 servings, this is how I have made tabbouleh for many years.)

Mix dry tabbouleh mix, water, olive oil, and lemon juice in a container with a lid and let sit in refrigerator several hours.

When ready to make salad, wash parsley and mint in salad spinner, then chop finely with large chef's knife or in food processor. Mix mint and parsley into tabbouleh mixture. Stir in almonds, Vege-sal and Spike.

This will keep for 1-2 days in refrigerator, but best eaten fresh. (After it's been in the fridge I sometimes add a little more olive oil and Spike to perk it up.)

Bulgur wheat would be considered a "good carb" making this salad an excellent choice for phase two or three of the South Beach Diet, especially if prepared the more traditional way with lots of fresh herbs in proportion to the other ingredients. This would taste great with anything from the grill, such as Very Greek Grilled Chicken or Grilled Spicy Tuna. You could add Middle Eastern Tomato Salad (another recipe favorite!) for the perfect combination to go with it.

Nutritional Information?
I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

This sounds really worth making! I haven't made tabbouleh before, but I tasted it for the first time yesterday. I was on a charity walk and my friend and I swapped a wrap. He had made it up using similar ingredients, but added pepper and mushroom. He spread the wrap with a lovely spicy chutney, it was heavenly!I am definitely going to try your recipe and if I have any left over I will put it in a wrap!

Hooray, tabbouleh with bulgur in the right proportion. I was so excited about that, that I didn't notice there were no tomatoes until Lydia mentioned it! One of my sons once told me off for putting too much bulgur in my tabbouleh, his mum has taught him well. Nothing wrong with almonds either, they're a traditional Middle Eastern ingredient.

Hi everyone,Back to teaching school for me today (although the kids don't come for a while) so I don't get a chance to respond individually to comments when I'm actually (supposed to be) working all day. But I do read them all, and I'm glad people seem to approve of my tabbouleh with not so much bulgur and lots of parsley!

I found your post while eating tabbouleh for lunch and goggling for variations! I make Ina Garten's version all the time, but I tend to get tired of eating the same thing, so thanks for the inspiration!=)

P.S. For tabbouleh with tomatoes, if you're making tabbouleh to keep for a few days in the fridge, leave the tomatoes out till just before serving. Otherwise they turn really mushy sitting in the mixture with lemon juice.

I really think it's fine to use a mix, when it's a mix of real spices. I use a mix to make falafel sometimes, and it was a Lebanese cook who first suggested it to me! She told me "nobody makes it from scratch". Well, I didn't believe that, but it's true that the mix tastes better than my from-scratch version.

Lydia I may have to try the falafel mix now! I do think it's true that in other countries they use cooking shortcuts just like many people do here. I once had a Filipino friend tell me to use the package mix for Adobo sauce!

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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